Senators Byron Dorgan, John Kerry and Richard Durbin pulled a fast one last week on their congressional colleagues. They tried to bury forever documents alleging that senior government officials tried to transform portions of the IRS and the Justice Department into a goon squad for attacking political enemies and aiding political friends.

Naturally, they didnt declare their intentions openly. Instead, Sen. Dorgan attached an innocent looking amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill that will fund government operations after September 30. The last-minute amendment read:

At the end of the bill, add the following:

SEC. __ . (a) None of the funds appropriated or made available in this Act or any other ACT may be used to fund the independent counsel investigation of Henry Cisneros after June 1, 2005.

(b) Not later than July 1, 2005, the Government Accountability Office (sic) shall provide the Committee on Appropriations of each House with a detailed accounting of the costs associated with the independent counsel investigation of Henry Cisneros.

Before detailing the sleight of hand, lets consider the background. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh insisted on the appointment of an Independent Counsel in 1995 after learning that then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros shuttled payments to his mistress without reporting them to the IRS. Once the news went public, Cisneros resigned from office, his previously promising political career in tatters. He later admitted to a misdemeanor and paid a fine of $10,000. President Clinton pardoned him in 2001.

Not that I'd ever give the Clinton's a pass, but if Clinton pardoned Cisneros, why is the special prosecutor still investigating him? Aren't we just wasting money continuing to investigate? Can the pardon be applied to as of yet undiscovered crimes?

If clinton pardoned Cisneros, then maybe he can't be jugged. But what about all the other guilty parties? He didn't do this on his own.

Also, I must say, it should be an open legal question if a president can be shown to have pardoned someone in order to escape criminal culpability of his own. I wouldn't expect anyone to take up that angle, but if the power of the pardon is sufficiently abused I should think the other branches should have the right to investigate.

Well that's the only reason why I brought it up. I wish they'd reopen the special prosecutor against Clinton. Forget the small fry, they need to go back and look at the big fish. If, however, a Cisneros investigation can get more evidence angainst the Clintons, I'm all for it!

Back in the early '90s Mr. Cisneros was considered the rising savior of the Democratic Party in Texas. "So there were people who wanted to save his political future," a source tells us. To that end, when the IRS began investigating him for tax fraud an extraordinary thing happened: The investigation was taken from the IRS district office that would always handle such an audit and moved to Washington, where it was killed.

"Never in the history of the IRS has a case been pulled out of the regional office and taken directly to Washington," our source continues. This information was originally provided to Mr. Barrett, some years into his investigation, by a whistleblower in the IRS regional office with 30 years of experience.

Using his subpoena power, Mr. Barrett also found that the IRS would not have been able to kill the case on its own. It had to have cooperation from the Justice Department, particularly the Public Integrity and Tax divisions. We're told Mr. Barrett beat back several attempts by Justice to squelch or otherwise limit his investigation, and that a lot of important names from the Clinton era appear in the report. One key figure is likely to be former Clinton Administration IRS Commissioner Peggy Richardson, a prominent Texas Democrat, and a friend of both Mr. Cisneros and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I don't see why all of this could not have been posted - PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ ALL OF TONY'S REPORT - IT'S STUNNING AND POINTS UP THE SENATE DEMOCRATS "ABUSE OF POWER". And is just another - in a long list - of abuses the democrats have done in the past few years.

Do not allow these people to continue this obstruction of justice plan. This is about shielding the democrats for the 2006 and 2008 elections - THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO BE SHIELDED FROM THIS SCANDALOUS INFORMATION.

13
posted on 04/27/2005 11:33:28 AM PDT
by CyberAnt
(President Bush: "America is the greatest nation on the face of the earth")

RICO. Read the article. It's bad, bad news. Organized goons at the IRS and Justice being sicced on political enemies. Of course they don't want this to see the light of day - they want the goons in place when they take the White House again.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.